This Month in Telecom: July 2018

This Month in Telecom is a monthly news round-up on VoipReview.org that aims to give our readers a fast and easy way to catch up on the latest news and top stories that are trending in the voice and telecommunications space. Check in every month to find out more about stories you may have missed in regards to new companies, mergers, trends, and other telecom advancements.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories in telecom for the month of July.
Avaya Teams Up with Flowroute to Hasten Cloud Communication Services Delivery
The month opened with Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA), the global leader in digital communications software, announcing its partnership with Flowroute Inc. Being a software-centric carrier, Flowroute provides Avaya with direct access to and/or control over high-quality telephony resources using cloud application programming interfaces (APIs).
Through this collaboration, Avaya aims to hasten customer on-boarding and time-to-market and to deliver superior communications experiences with help from Flowroute. Mehdi Nezarati, the Senior Director of Product management at Avaya, has this to say about the partnership.
“We are committed to delivering a best-in-class cloud platform to simplify the way our customers deploy new communication experiences. Flowroute is helping create a frictionless experience for onboarding customers and ensuring we get to market faster. By working with Flowroute, we are able to deliver unparalleled network coverage, quality, and reliability for our customers.”
One Ring Networks Completes Acquisition of Skyriver Communications
Georgia-based network solutions provider, One Ring Networks, announced this month that it has completed the acquisition of Skyriver, a high-speed communications provider headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The acquisition enables One Ring Networks to expand their footprint in California markets, such as Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, and Riverside/San Bernardino, as well as to introduce their managed IT services, fiber Internet, and hosted PBX solutions in the region.
John Jenkins, the CEO of One Ring Networks, has this to say about their latest acquisition:
“With years of industry expertise and a robust portfolio of communications solutions, our team is built to serve the needs of our customers. As we progress into our California markets, we will build on the structure that Skyriver has implemented by scaling our resources, accelerating innovation and offering additional services. This strategic decision ties into our underlying mission of simplifying customers’ lives through the provision of exceptional communications solutions.”
Genesys Unveils New Integration with Google Cloud Contact Center AI
In keeping with the company’s mission to deliver a more personalized experience for the consumer while drastically cutting down on the deployment time of bots, Genesys, the global leader in omnichannel customer experience and contact center solutions, recently announced their partnership with Google Cloud. Through this collaboration, both companies empower brands by enabling them to easily deploy some of the industry’s smartest bots capable of resolving issues faster, while increasing sales and enhancing customer satisfaction and employee efficiency.
Rajen Sheth, the director of Product Management at Google, has this to say about their partnership with Kate, the Genesys AI platform. “Contact Center AI empowers enterprises to use AI to complement and enhance their contact centers,” said Sheth. “Google Cloud’s goal is to make it as easy as possible for our customers to use AI for contact centers through our relationships with key partners like Genesys.”
In addition to improving customer experience, the collaboration enables organizations to solve customer needs faster as well as to drive business efficiency by automating interactions with consumers (e.g., making payments and checking balances and returns) while allowing more complex issues to be managed by employees.
Windstream Enterprise Launches SD-WAN Cloud Connect and More
Windstream Enterprise, the leading provider of advanced network communications, announced this month that it has launched SD-WAN Cloud Connect. Offered in partnership with VeloCloud, now part of the VMware, SD-WAN Cloud Connect provides a flexible and efficient way for enterprises to connect all their network locations to their cloud-based applications.
According to Mike Frane, the Vice President of Product Management at Windstream Enterprise, the introduction of SD-WAN Cloud Connect represents a significant milestone in their SD-WAN journey. With its flexible access options, SD-WAN Cloud Connect can help enterprises easily connect to public or proprietary apps running at the leading cloud service providers (CSPs).
In addition to Windstream Enterprise’s Cloud Connect and SD-WAN Concierge solutions, the company offers its industry-leading Wi-Fi, proprietary OfficeSuite UC, and contact center services. Windstream also provides a plethora of complementary network and communications solutions, including integrated network security and access, and transport and business continuity solutions, such as Wavelength Services with Optical Encryption, Ethernet, and Fixed Wireless.
netsapiens Rolls Out Its Award-Winning Signature SNAPsolution Platform
Trusted B2B provider of unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions, netsapiens, officially released the latest version of its award-winning, signature SNAPsolution platform. Available to current users as a free download, SNAPsolution’s additional updates will greatly improve the level of efficiency and flexibility for managed service providers (MSPs).
Powered by netsapiens’ custom-built unified communications software platform, SNAPsolution aims to help MSPs deliver a fully comprehensive communications solutions that can best meet their clients’ requirements. Key highlights of the v39 release include:
- SNAP.HD. This provides the highest real-time video quality with the best bandwidth utilization at an affordable cost.
- SRTP Audio Encryption Support. This delivers enhanced encryption, message authentication, and integrity for secure communications between connections and audio endpoints.
- IPv6 Support. This allows device-to-device communication with IPv6 utilized in their signaling and media protocols.
- Call Detail Records (CDR) Export Scheduling Tool. This solution improves efficiency for exporting and/or sending reports.
- Improved Localization/Internalization. Includes new features for language selection and management.
- SNAPbuilder Endpoints Enhancements. Grandstream, Cisco, and HTEk phones are now covered by netsapiens’ key programming tool.
- Google Speech Transcription. Introduces new voicemail transcription provider and licensing option for SNAPsolution customers.
Mitel Partners with Westcon-Comstor to Expand Its Footprint in the South Pacific and EMEA
To better support customers on their digital transformation journey and help channel partners adapt to the rapidly changing and competitive communications landscape, Mitel, a global leader in enterprise communications, has announced a pan-international partnership with Westcon-Comstor. As the worldwide leading technology distributor, Westcon-Comstor will help distribute Mitel’s entire portfolio of communications and collaboration solution in the South Pacific and EMEA markets.
As Mitel’s Authorized Training Partner, Westcon provides certified training that allows the channel to expand Mitel’s professional services in both regions. This extended partnership, which is part of Mite’s go-to-market strategy, allows Mitel resellers to easily and quickly take full advantage of the company’s enterprise-grade unified communication and collaboration (UCC) solutions as well as Westcon’s superior service to achieve better results.